Shut down JIRA before you begin, unless you are running the setup wizard.

On this page:

1. Configure Oracle

Ensure that you have a database instance available for JIRA (either create a new one or use an existing one).

Within that database instance, create a user which JIRA will connect as (e.g. jiradbuser). Remember this database user name, as it will be used to configure JIRA's connection to this database in subsequent steps.

It is very important that the user is granted the exact privileges indicated above. JIRA requires only these privileges — if either less or more than these privileges are applied, some JIRA functions may not work properly.

Simply put, for JIRA functions to work as expected, we advise that you grant specific privileges to the user, and not assign a role to the user.

For example, if you grant the RESOURCE role to a user, and the RESOURCE role grants the SELECT ANY TABLE privilege, then JIRA functions may not work as expected.

We recommend that you grant the exact privileges indicated above to the user instead.

Ensure your database is configured to use the same character encoding as JIRA. The recommended encoding is AL32UTF8 (the Oracle equivalent of Unicode UTF-8).

2. Configure your JIRA Server to connect to your Oracle database

There are two ways to configure your JIRA server to connect to your Oracle database:

Using the JIRA setup wizard — Use this method if you have just installed JIRA, and are setting it up for the first time. Your settings will be saved to the dbconfig.xml file in your JIRA home directory.

Using the JIRA configuration tool — Use this method if you have an existing JIRA instance. Your settings will be saved to the dbconfig.xml file in your JIRA home directory.

Instructions for each configuration method

JIRA setup wizard

The JIRA setup wizard will display when you access JIRA for the first time in your browser.

In the first screen, 'Configure Language and Database', set Database Connection to My own database.

Test your connection and save. Any custom settings specified while manually configuring JIRA with Oracle (e.g., adding the <connection-properties>SetBigStringTryClob=true</connection-properties>) will be deleted. You will need to reinstate them manually.

Restart JIRA.

Database connection fields

Setup Wizard / Configuration Tool

dbconfig.xml

Description

Hostname

Located in the <url> tag (bold text in example below):<url>jdbc:oracle:thin:@dbserver:1521:ORCL</url>

The name or IP address of the machine that the Oracle server is installed on.

Port

Located in the <url> tag (bold text in example below):<url>jdbc:oracle:thin:@dbserver:1521:ORCL</url>

The TCP/IP port that the Oracle server is listening on. The default port number for Oracle is '1521'.

SID

Located in the <url> tag (bold text in example below):<url>jdbc:oracle:thin:@dbserver:1521:ORCL</url>

The Oracle "System Identifier". The default value for most Oracle servers is 'ORCL'. If you are using the Oracle Express Edition, this will be 'XE'.

Username

Located in the <username> tag (see bold text in example below):<username>jiradbuser</username>

The user that JIRA uses to connect to the Oracle server. You should have created this in Step 1 above.

Password

Located in the <password> tag (see bold text in example below):<password>jiradbuser</password>

The user's password — used to authenticate with the Oracle server.

Sample dbconfig.xml file

For more information about the child elements of <jdbc-datasource/> beginning with pool in the dbconfig.xml file above, see Tuning database connections.

3. Start JIRA

You should now have JIRA configured to connect to your Oracle database. The next step is to start it up!

Congratulations, you now have JIRA connected to your Oracle database.

Known issues and troubleshooting

If you start experiencing problems when dealing with custom workflows or working with issues that have long descriptions, comments or custom field values, try adding the element <connection-properties>SetBigStringTryClob=true</connection-properties> as a child of the </jdbc-datasource> element in your dbconfig.xml file. Adding this connection property may overcome these problems. Be aware that you will need to restart JIRA for this setting to take effect.